Uefa Cup Countdown: Weight of past glories haunt Spurs, says Ramos

Thursday 8 November 2007 00:00 BST

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The Tottenham coach Juande Ramos knows that at so-called sleeping giants, the past weighs heavily. "Tottenham is a big club," the Spaniard said as his side prepared for tonight's Uefa Cup tie against Hapoel Tel Aviv. "On one side, the history of the club is enormous. But on the other, is the reality of the results. They haven't won anything in a long time. I compare them to Atletico Madrid in Spain."

Ramos has no fresh injury concerns. Anthony Gardner (ankle), Ledley King (knee), Benoît Assou-Ekotto (ankle) and Ricardo Rocha (ankle) are out. Gareth Bale (foot) has been training but will not play.

Gary Megson was in bullish mood as Bolton prepared to play one of the most glamorous games in the club's history without a number of key players. Leading scorer Nicolas Anelka, El-Hadji Diouf and Ivan Campo have all been ruled out of the Uefa Cup match against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena tonight.

Anelka is still suffering from a hamstring strain, while Diouf turned his ankle against West Ham on Sunday. Campo has started the last two league games under Megson but it was too late for him to be registered in the competition. However, Megson said: "We are not going to come here and try and keep the score down. The format of the competition is that you have to try and get results when you can and that's our aim."

Nuremberg coach impressed by Everton

The Nuremberg coach, Hans Meyer, has hailed Everton as a "fantastic team" but hopes his struggling team can make something happen when the two sides meet in the Uefa Cup tonight.

As his side flirt with the relegation zone pressure is mounting on the charismatic veteran coach, who believes Everton are "playing in a different league". He said: "Everton have a very strong side and they are in great shape. We already have a lot of respect for them. We'll speak about their strengths as they don't have any weaknesses.

"I know for a fact that we would not finish fifth or sixth in the Premier League even if we were injury-free all season long."

Aberdeen heartened as injury list is cut to two

Six Aberdeen players have returned to fitness ahead of the Uefa Cup Group B tie with Lokomotiv Moscow at Pittodrie. The Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood was missing eight first team players for Saturday's 2-0 Clydesdale Bank Premier League victory over Dundee United, but only Jamie Smith (hamstring) and Darren Mackie (ankle) remain sidelined from the weekend. Derek Soutar, Zander Diamond, Scott Severin, Chris Clark, Richard Foster and Steve Lovell are all back in contention, although Jonathon Smith has picked up a knock and will miss out.